Perhaps, you think, there must be a way to quit smoking tobacco - with its attendant health and social negatives - while still feeding or even weaning off that nicotine habit.

Well, Ashley Davies and Nathan Grefe think they have the answer for you. The business partners opened Just the Tip Vapors on Monday in Stockton, selling a variety of electronic cigarettes and supplies.

Located at 9305 Thornton Road, just a couple doors down from Dante's Pizza, the shop is still a work in progress but offers a selection of about a half-dozen refillable, rechargeable e-cigarette models - some with separate battery and vaporizing units - and 21 different flavors of vaporizing liquid. Each flavor has a choice of two nicotine levels, and menthol, if desired, can be added to all.

And the owners are both users, and advocates, for their products.

"This is what got me off cigarettes," Davies said. "I believe in it."

She began using e-cigarettes in December while living in the Long Beach area, where she met Grefe, who was also looking to kick the tobacco habit.

"I've been cigarette free for seven months now," he said Tuesday afternoon.

"It's definitely something for people who want to get off smoking to take a look at."

There's a growing market for e-cigarettes, said Davies, the daughter of Stockton real estate broker and restaurateur Bruce Davies.

"There are numerous cigarette and liquor stores selling cigarettes around this town," she said. "Here you can actually find something that will get you off cigarettes."

And, while Just the Tip Vapors may be the first of its kind in Stockton, she compared it to Long Beach where there are eight e-cigarette stores in the city proper and twice that many in the immediate area.

Citigroup analysts also see e-cigarettes as an industry poised for rapid growth, citing it as one of 10 disruptive technologies in an April report.

Worldwide sales of e-cigarettes are expected to hit $1.9 billion this year, nearly double 2012's $1 billion in estimated sales, the report said. And it's expected to jump to $2.7 billion next year.

Big tobacco companies are also getting into the game, with Lorillard's acquisition of blu eCigs last year, Reynolds American having begun to test market its own brand and Phillip Morris planning to do the same later this year.

But Just the Tip isn't carrying those companies' disposable e-cigarettes.

"The product quality is just not there," Davies said.

"Our product is better. It's refillable and rechargeable."

Regular smokers may also find e-cigarettes are a money-saving alternative.

Davies said a basic model goes for less than $37, with everything included.

And liquid refills - a mix of flavoring, nicotine and propylene glycol and/or glycerin, liquid commonly found in cosmetic and pharmaceutical products - go for $10.50 or $14.50 and last a heavy user about a week, Grefe said.